System of submarine sounding



y 22, 5 R. VILLEM 2,554,227

SYSTEM OF SUBMARINE SOUNDING Filed NOV. 27, 1945 it 2 i:

Q A z k INVENTOR RAYMOND V/LLEM WMEZQ AGENTS Patented May 22, 1951SYSTEM OF SUBMARINE SOUNDING Raymond Villem, Paris, France, assignor toSociete Francaise Radio Electrique, a, corporation of France ApplicationNovember 2'7, 1945, Serial No. 631,059 In France January 20, 1943Section 1, Public Law 690, August 8, 1946 Patent expires January 20,1963 1 Claim. 1

This invention is for improvements in or relating to a system ofsubmarine sounding on board vessels. As a result of experience, it hasbeen found that according to the condition of the sea the regularity ofthe indications supplied by the sounding equipment installed on boardvessels is improved if the projector is arranged in a recess formed inthe hull of the vessel.

By the term projector there is meant either a horn destined fortransmission or a device destined for reception. In the latter case, theinfluence of the condition of the sea upon the working of the soundingsystem is particularly noticeable.

Such an arrangement, however, necessitates cutting away a portion of thehull of the vessel and consequently adds materially to the diificultiesof installation.

The object of the present invention is the elimination of the necessityof cutting away a portion of the hull of a vessel whilst preserving theregularity of the indications.

The invention consists essentially in mounting on the outside of thehull of a vessel a deflector which consists essentially in principle ofensuring that the part of the installation which transmits thevibrations to the water orreceives the vibrations from the liquidmedium, is out of the zone of air bubbles produced along the hull by thedisplacement thereof.

The invention will be more particularly described with reference to theaccompanying drawing which illustrates in sectional elevation one methodof carrying out the invention.

On the hull I of the vessel there is directly secured as by welding, asis well known, a watertight container 2, closed by a cover 3, attachedby bolts 4, the tightness being assured by the joint 5. A projector 6 issecured in the interior of said container, which is carefully filledwith water, to the cover 3, by the bolts I effecting the tight joint 8.The projector 6 is shown here by way of example as being of theFessenden type, which is described on page 249 in Acoustics by Stewartand Lindsay, D. Van Nostrand Co. publishers, New York, 1930; but anyacoustic or ultra-acoustic projector using magnetostriction or quartz isalso suitable. The beam emitted by the vibrating plate 9 has, by way ofexample, an angular opening or spread as shown at Ill. The deflectorarrangement which is the subject of the present invention comprises atruncated cone of sheet metal II and the central cylinder I2 also ofsheet metal. The deflector is secured by its large base to the hull bywelding, for example, opposite the container 2, in such a manner thatthe axis of the cylinder I2 substantially coincides with the axis ofbeam Hi. The deflector I II2 being very rigidly attached to the hull Ivibrates with it, and the beam It can well be larger than the cylinderI2 without harm to the functioning of the apparatus. A small tube I3,opening at one end at I4 into the cylinder and at the other end to freeair above the water level, advantageously serves to draw out the airbubbles which may accidentally occur in the cylinder I2.

The same arrangement is applicable to reception, the microphonereplacing the projector ii and being mounted so that the axis of itsreceiving diaphragm coincides with the axis of the cylinder I2.

Under the above conditions it is found that the weakening, if any, dueto the passage of the vibrations through the hull is only slight and thetransmission or reception can be carried out in practice as efiicientlyas when the projector is attached to the hull so as to be in directcommunication with the outside water.

Otherwise, from the point of view of protecting the arrangement againstthe weakening of signals and parasite noises caused by bubbles of air,conditions are found to be similar to those of a projector mounted in arecess formed in the hull.

What I claim is:

A system of submarine sounding on board ves-- sels comprising acontainer filled with water, mounted within the hull of the vessel, asound projector located within the said container, 2. deflector havingsubstantially the shape of a truncated cone provided with an opencentral cylinder, whose axis is substantially the axis of the said coneand mounted with the base secured to the hull, outside of the latter,the axis of the deflector being substantially the axis of the acousticbeam of the said projector.

RAYMOND VILLEM.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 713,834 Bailey Nov. 18, 1902955,359 Schell Apr. 19, 1910 1,117,766 Berger Nov. 1'7, 1914 1,131,764Williams Mar. 16, 1915 1,318,739 Fessenden Oct. 14, 1919 2,400,870 BatesMay 28, 1946

